Oswestry Christmas Parade, which is to be held this Saturday 4th December – starting at 11am, has a long and proud history so it’s great to see it return after the recent hiatus.
Looking back 67 years the headline read, “Santa Claus Arrives by Spaceship” and so it was that Father Christmas, flanked by two spacemen, climbed down from a Spaceship in Oswestry town centre and said, “Ho, Ho, Ho!” The then Mayor, W J Roberts greeted him and said “I’d like to welcome you on behalf of the children of Oswestry. You know, when I was a child, Father Christmas came down the chimney but how different are things in 1954. Now, for the first time in our lives you’ve comes in a spaceship – from Mars!”
Unfortunately, we couldn’t find any pictures from that event, which was run by Oswestry Round Table, but the wonderful imagery at the very dawn of the space age is similar to today, so many years later, for we still share the imagination and dreams and that same bright hope for Christmas and the future.
Jonathan Jones from Borderland Rotary, who has organised the parade for more than a decade said, “We are so thrilled to be back and it’s great that we are able to keep up this long, and some might say, glorious tradition and we just hope that this year’s event will conjure up those same lasting festive images and memories and bring a smile to every face”.
Please note: The roads in the centre of Oswestry will be closed on Saturday 4th December from 10.45 till 12.30. The parade starts and finishes at the traffic lights by St Oswald’s Church and travels along Church Street, Willow Street, Cross Street, Castle Street, Beatrice Street and Oswald Road. All linking streets will obviously be closed so get into town early and enjoy the show.
Pictures: Grum.
